Study: No Deal Brexit Could Cost U.K. 750,000 Jobs [Infographic]

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has embarked on a trip to meet European leaders and EU officials in a bid to save her Brexit deal. After yesterday's turmoil in the House of Commons which saw Tuesday's scheduled vote on the deal postponed, May is meeting German Chancellor Angele Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to discuss changes to the Irish backstop. The backstop is a position of last resort to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland if the U.K. leaves the EU without a deal. After the vote was postponed in the face of overwhelming opposition, there is growing concern that the U.K. will not pass the necessary legislation to complete its departure, raising the prospect that a no-deal Brexit will occur.

If that does happen, it could spell disaster for hundreds of thousands of British workers. A new study by the U.K. Trade Policy Observatory and the University of Sussex has forecast that a soft Brexit will also prove costly for British jobs with an estimated 400,000 lost around the country. In a worst-case scenario where the U.K. crashes out of the EU without a deal, the impact could be devastating with up to 750,000 people losing their jobs. That includes nearly 150,000 in London, over 80,000 in the north west of the country and 63,500 in Scotland.